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Stingrays hold off Road Warriors

By Myron Hosea;, Contributing Writer;
1:08 a.m. EST December 28, 2013

Greenville's Brayden Irwin battles with South Carolina's Patrick Gaul for control of the puck as the Road Warriors hosted the South Carolina Stingrays at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
(Photo:
RICHARD SHIRO
)

South Carolina fended off a Greenville rally in the final period Friday night and defeated the Road Warriors 3-2 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

The loss ended Greenville’s winning streak at four games as the Road Warriors missed an opportunity to climb to eighth in the ECHL Eastern Conference standings.

After scoring 27 goals in its last six games, Greenville (12-14-1-1) found the going difficult against Stingrays goalie Jeff Jakaitis, the top net-minder in the league. He rebuffed 26 shots while shutting out Greenville over the first two periods.

“It’s disappointing,” said Road Warriors coach Dean Stork. “This one hurts. This was an opportunity for this group here to get it done. (South Carolina) is team that’s very strapped for players, and we lost 3-2.”

Stork said it was the “details in our defensive zone” that made the difference.

Down 2-0 after a Stingrays goal 44 seconds into the third period, the Road Warriors finally thrilled the 4,140 fans – many wielding light sabers for Star Wars Night – with a goal at 7:57 of the third.

Jordie Johnston scored an unassisted power play goal by glancing a shot off of Jakaitis’ pad.

The Stingrays, who lead the ECHL Eastern Conference with 43 points, answered at 15:22 to go up 3-1.

Greenville bounced back, however, when Justin Vaive scored his sixth goal in eight games at 16:56 of the third. He took a centering pass from Brayden Irwin and punched it past Jakaitis.

“(Irwin) said in the first period that we needed people to just go to the net, and he was going to throw it there,” Vaive said. “Obviously, it ended up going off me and into the net. That’s kind of what we need to do a little bit more.”

South Carolina (20-5-1-2) scored first with a goal at 11:08 of the opening period. Luka Vidmar notched his first goal of the season a second after Greenville stopped a Stingrays power play opportunity.

The Road Warriors will host Elmira today at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.